Louise Denhez writes that guilt-provoking commercials and PSAs create more
resistance to change than to changes in behavior.  I haven't seen the data
that support this, but my sense of human nature is that she may have a
point.  I do think these guilt-trips can sometimes get your attention and
they have a way of lingering in the consciousness This may be part of the
way that denial is breached. Over time, this probably does prickle some
people into changed behavior.

 However, it must be remembered that in the anti-smoking and seatbelt
promotion and drunk driving campaigns a LARGE component in the shift of the
public's behavior has been a change in public policy which backed up the
information campaign with strictly enforced LAWS.  I don't think, for
instance, that guilt alone has succeeded in getting passive smoke out of the
work-place.  I was visibly pregnant in the early 80's, and took an evening
job at a local IRS center (US tax collecting service for you non-Americans)
so I could pay for my midwives.  All the people around me smoked like
chimmneys.  They looked guilty and apologetic at my obvious discomfort (and
NAUSEA) every time they lit up.  But they still lit up.  It wasn't until the
LAW said they had to go outside that smokers quit fouling the air for the
rest of us.  The same is true of seat-belt use and bike helmets.  It wasn't
until the law said you will be ticketed and fined that most people complied.
It wasn't until the DWI laws began to be strickly enforced that we began to
get serious about locking up drunk drivers.

Public policy must back-up health and safety educational campaigns.  It
would be great to see incentives such as lower insurance policy costs for
breastfeeding families.  A real governmental will to support the WHO code,
including controls on the way formula is advertised and distributed.  A
committment from the medical community to take their hands out of the
pockets of formula companies.  Real instruction in nursing and medical
school curricula on how to support lactation. Laws in place in every state
to protect the right of women to breastfeed publically without concerns of
harrassment. Inclusion of lactation in elementary and secondary health text
books, etc etc.  All these steps would go a real long way in changing
everything about breastfeeding in the US.

Barbara

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Private Practice, Austin, Texas
Owner, Lactnews On-Line Conference Page
http://moontower.com/bwc/lactnews.html